Top Ten Sunday Comic Strips from the Sunday News and Record (Greensboro, NC): Foxtrot Takes Gold

Greetings to our blog readers in Macedonia, Kenya, and Dubai....

This week we take a look at the top ten comic strips from the Sunday edition of "The News and Record," a daily newspaper in Greensboro, NC, which is not to be mixed up with a weekly newspaper of the same name in South Boston, Va., a town which is noted for having artistic fire hydrants. A similar project was performed in Lewisburg, WVa.

There were no fire hydrant jokes in the ten comic strips which made our cut, but "Foxtrot," our first place finisher, focused on everything that could go wrong on a family picnic, including the dreaded poison ivy (pictured top) as well as ants........oh actually Javier the Intern has informed us that the strip featured ticks not ants. Let's move on.....

The Danish import "WuMo," featured a crazy elephant trying to tip over a Coca Cola truck to the confused befuddlement of his fellow elephants at a gas station, perhaps in an Interstate town like Augusta, Georgia.

And, speaking of Augusta, we conclude with "Ziggy," which week showed the title character having a miserable day at the golf course, which is why we have an image of golf legend Arnold Palmer in our third slot! An alcoholic beverage that we've never had is named after him as well....

Here is the list:

1. Foxtrot

2. WuMo

3. Pearls Before Swine

4. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

5. Over the Hedge

6. Ziggy

7. Phoebe and Her Unicorn

8. Dilbert

9. Judge Parker

10. Doonesbury

http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

http://www.gocomics.com/ziggy

http://www.arnoldpalmer.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Hooray for Agnes

Greetings to our blog readers in Sweden, South Africa, and Cyprus......

It's perhaps fitting that this week's Sunday comic strip "Pearls Before Swine" which features its Goat character in the lime light (well in a dim limelight) is the top finisher in our weekly survey of Sunday comic strips from "The Roanoke Times" as there are some cool pygmy goats from Cameroon at the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke, Va.

For those who have never traveled to Roanoke, it is a city of 100,000 people which is an hour north of Martinsville, Va., home of the Rev. Johnny Robertson who is rumored to have the most over-the-top Southern Baptist church in the world, well at least in Henry County.

Our third-place finisher is "Agnes," which is why we have an image of the late Agnes Moorehead who played the mother in the late 1960s sitcom "Bewitched."

Fifth place goes to Get Fuzzy, which has some knock knock jokes, so we went with an image of Mormons.

Liberal comedian Bill Maher is actually coming to Roanoke on Friday for the first time, we hope he really socks it to Donald Trump, who was brilliantly lampooned in today's (Monday) "Zippy the Pinhead."

Here is the list:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Speed Bump

3. Agnes

4. Dilbert

5. Get Fuzzy

6. Doonesbury

7. Funky Winkerbean

8. Garfield

9. Zits

10. Jump Start

http://www.mmzoo.org/

http://www.visitroanokeva.com/things-to-do/

http://www.visitmartinsville.com/

Comic Strip Conversations: A Quote from Garfield

Here are nine lines from nine different Sunday comic strips; we hope you enjoy them:

1) "Do you like pie, Earl?" (Pickles, Aug. 2nd)

2) "So what are you guys going to do tonight?" (Zits, March 29th)

3) "I forgot my Kindle!" (Blondie, Aug. 9th)

4) "He fell into a black hole of narcissism" (Brewster Rockit: Space Guy, Aug. 9th)

5) "Are you still single?" (Garfield, Aug. 9th, pict. top)

6) "Yeah, but the worst part is being invisible." (Doonesbury, March 29th)

7) "I've gotta hit the little boys' room." (Crankshaft, May 3rd)

8) "How should I approach your dog?" (Mother Goose and Grimm, May 3rd, pict. center)

9) "There's lasagna in the oven," (Sherman's Lagoon, March 29th)

http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.comicskingdom.com

Comic Strips Dialogue: We Quote Pickles

Three years ago, we used to take dialogue from comic strips and put them in order to make a full conversation. We are using an image of the play "Defending the Caveman" for the comic strip "B.C." Similarly, we are using the Northside High School (Roanoke, Va.) logo for "Hagar the Horrible," who is also a Viking. And, lastly, we using sinks from a Turkish bathroom for the line we are using from the comic strip "Take It from the Tinkersons."

Here we go (Don't Try This at Home or On Your Blog...it's time-consuming):

1. "Mmmm! Something sure smells good!" (Pickles, Aug. 2nd)

2. "Let me give you a cooking lesson." (Baldo, Aug. 2nd)

3. "Go away. I already beat you once!" (B.C., July 19th)

4. "Try to relax! Focus on your peaceful surroundings! Don't think about work!" (Hagar the Horrible, Aug. 2nd)

5. "Hey, I know real people!" (Garfield, July 19th)

6. "You're a Bob Dylan fan, right Cosmo?" (Shoe, July 19th)

7. "Wow! Talk about false advertising." (Adam at Home, May 3rd)

8. "Diner was marvelous, mom." (Hi and Lois, May 3rd)

9. "I........Have to Go to the Bathroom" (Take it from the Tinkersons, May 3rd)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Going to Syria

We are quite pressed for time today, so let's go ahead and jump in the pool, which probably doesn't translate well in Japanese, Polish, or Norwegian!

This week's first place comic strip went to "Pearls Before Swine" where pig gives a brilliant line in the last panel; we don't want to give out a Spoiler Alert, so we shall let you find the strip for yourself (see link below).

In "Doonesbury," political satire takes center stage as one patriotic American wanting to defeat ISIS terrorists realizes that coming to Syria is even more problematic than Afghanistan, a country he knows much better.

In our third place strip, Bucky the cat and Satchel the dog have a spot about Atlantic salmon (pict. bottom); here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2015/08/09

2. Get Fuzzy http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

3. Doonesbury http://www.doonesbury.com

4. Agnes http://www.gocomics.com/agnes

5. Non Sequitur

6. Jump Start http://www.gocomics.com/jumpstart

7. Dilbert http://www.dilbert.com

8. Mutts

9. Speed Bump

10. Zits

http://www.roanoke.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from Sunday Myrtle Beach Sun: Ziggy Breaks the Fourth Wall

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, Mexico, and Russia.

Today, we give you our ten favorite comic strips that were featured in the Sunday edition of "The Myrtle Beach Sun" in Myrtle Beach, SC. Ironically, the beach image at the top is from one of their vacation destination rivals Ocean City, Maryland!

The beach was the topic in first place strip "Off the Mark" where all the kids had taken their cellphones into the water!

The second image is in reference to "Dustin," where the kids basically pretended they were Al Pacino from "Scarface" and had a water gun fight.

Lastly, "Ziggy" featured Tom Wilson, the cartoonist behind "Ziggy," breaking the fourth wall as Ziggy told the readers that the cartoonist couldn't come up with any ideas for this week's comic strip. Maybe, next week, Ziggy can state the famous "Hamlet" line: "To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question." Just a thought.

Here is the top ten:

1. "Off the Mark"

2. "Dustin"

3. "Doonesbury"

4. "Mother Goose and Grimm"

5. "Betty"

6. "Ziggy"

7. "Curtis"

8. "Stone Soup"

9. "Dilbert"

10. "Hagar the Horrible"

http://www.gocomics.com/offthemark

http://www.gocomics.com/ziggy

Ten Songs We Heard in One Hour on Simon-FM (Greensboro, NC): Do You Want New Drugs?

We learned while putting this entry together that Huey Lewis and the News is continuing its perennial North American summer tour with a stop in Camden, New Jersey, on August, 20th. The popular '80s band whose song "Hip to Be Square" was featured during a memorable scene with Christian Bale and Jared Leto in "American Psycho" will also be performing in Biloxi, Mississippi, on Oct. 10th.

Here are those ten songs which were played during the 11:00 p.m.-midnight hour on Saturday night:

1) I Want a New Drug, Huey Lewis and the News. 1984. (Lithium is pict. top)

2)  Heartache Tonight, The Eagles. 1979.

3) Right Here, Right Now, Jesus Jones. 1991 (pict. center)

4) Another Brick in the Wall, Pink Floyd. 1979.

5) I Want Her, Keith Sweat. 1987.

6) Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin. 1971.

7) Under the Bridge, Red Hot Chili Peppers. 1991

8) Always Something There to Remind Me, Naked Eyes. 1983.

9) It's the End of the World As We Know It (And, I Feel Fine), REM. 1987 (bottom image)

10) Brickhouse, Commodores, 1977.

http://www.987simon.com

http://www.hueylewisandthenews.com

http://www.redhotchilipeppers.com

The Republicans Presidential Candidates List: Best to Worst

As we are listening to REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And, I Feel Fine)" on Simon-FM in Greensboro, NC, we start our list of the Republican candidates list from Best to Worst, which actually makes us soooo glad we are not Republicans here, though we wish Jim Gilmore, the former governor of our home state of Virginia well (he is currently dead last out of the 17 candidates)!

When he last attempted to run  for political office in the state against now Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Gilmore got about 35-percent of the vote.

Here is the list:

1. Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC, pict. top)

2. former Gov. George Pataki (NY, pict. center, he's getting less press than his fellow New Yorker)

3. Gov. Chris Christie (NJ, pict. bottom, he's a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen)

4. Carly Fiornia (Calif., former CEO executive)

5. Gov. John Kasich (Ohio)

6. Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

7. former Gov. Jim Gilmore (Va)

8. Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky)

9. former Gov. Jeb Bush (Florida)

10. Ben Carson (Maryland, a former surgeon)

11. Gov. Scott Walker (Wisc.)

12. Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.)

13. former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa)

14. Donald Trump (billionaire tycoon, yeah, you know who he is.......where is the Anacin?)

15. former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.)

16. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

17. former governor Rick Perry (Texas)

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogpost.com

http://www.politico.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.rollcall.com

http://www.c-span.org

Top Ten Comics from the Roanoke Times: Hair Force One

Once again, Garry Trudeau brilliantly lampooned the Donald Trump presidential candidate run for the Republican Party nomination which makes me think that one Paris Hilton will make a play for the Oval Office as well in his comic strip "Doonesbury." In his strip, which got first place this week, Trudeau also makes fun of two other Republican candidates with zero political experience in Carly Fiornia, a former Hewett Packard CEO, and Ben Carson, a retired brain surgeon from Baltimore, Md.

Second place goes to "Zits"in which Jeremy, a boy who has been a teenager since the days when Nirvana was in its heyday, is depicted as a large massive head which his parents try to push along.

"Speed Bump" also finished in our top ten, and this week Dave Coverly's strip had a Roman man in a toga with son who was also dressed like John Belushi in "Animal House" looking up at the sky and noticing birds flying over them in a V-formation which makes the boy ask his father: "Why do birds fly in a five-shape?"

Here is our top ten:

1. Doonesbury

2. Zits

3. Jump Start

4. Agnes

5. Garfield

6. Pearls Before Swine

7. Get Fuzzy

8. Funky Winkerbean

9. Speed Bump

10. Dilbert

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.gocmics.com/speedbump

http://www.gocomics.com/zits

http://www.gocomics.com/agnes

Top Ten Comic Strips from Comics Kingdom: Bleeker Wins the Blue Ribbon

Greetings to those of you visiting our blog tonight regardless if you are from Hagerstown, Maryland (home of the Hagerstown Suns baseball team), or Auckland, New Zealand.......

Comics Kingdom is a comic strip and features (crossword puzzles, Sudoku) distributor which has a blend of traditional comic strips like "Beetle Bailey" and "Blondie" as well as new comic strip aimed at younger demographics, including "Intelligent Life" which is sort of like a comic strip version of "The Big Bang Theory" that revolves around nerd life.

Our favorite Sunday comic strip from Comics Kingdom is "Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog" with a gorgeous illustration of a young boy and his sister going for a tumultuous canoe ride with their pet robots; it reminded us of the New River, which runs through West Virginia and rural southwestern Virginia.

Second place goes to "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" which depicts what can go awry when a young boy plays with a rocket and a mouse is nearby. Third place went to "Bizarro" which mocked outdoors safety tips pamphlets which illustrated that when one comes across a grizzly bear all bets are off. We also enjoyed Bill Griffith as his cult favorite comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead" made fun of the Tea Party crowd and he did this without mentioning Ben Carson or Donald Trump!

Here is the top ten:

*-Comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post

1. Bleeker

2. Edison Lee

3. Bizarro

4. Zippy the Pinhead

*5. Sherman's Lagoon

*6. Foxtrot

*7. Dustin

*8. Zits

9. Six Chix

10. On the Fasttrack

http://www.bleekercomics.com

http://www.edisonleecomics.com

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

4. Zippy the Pinhead 

Ten Songs in a Row That We Heard on Steve-FM (Roanoke, Va.): Jimmy Buffet Fans Will Like This....

Last week, we watched our favorite comedy show on tv "Maron" on IFC, which stars comedian/actor Marc Maron as a version of himself. During the episode, Marc talked about how much he hated Jimmy Buffett. It was an amusing segment although we really have nothing against Buffet's music, unlike late period Aerosmith or REO Speedwagon.

As it turns out, Buffett's beach music anthem "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (pict. bottom) was one of the ten songs played on Steve-FM (106.5  Roanoke, Va.), a variety pop and rock music station, played between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Friday night.

Other tunes in the mix included "Hold the Line" by Toto (top image, yeah we couldn't resist), "Mickey" by Toni Basil (center image, yeah we couldn't resist that either...the video for the song featured cheerleaders) and "Out of Touch" by Hall and Oates, which surprisingly enough was also played on Simon-FM (98.7 in Greensboro, NC) one hour later!

Here is the list, which is in the order they were played in the radio, not in order of preference........don't worry, we will let you know which song is our favorite, and which song is our least favorite.........:

1) Hold the Line, Toto, 1978

2) Mickey, Toni Basil, 1982

3) Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins. 1986.

4) Lips of An Angel, Hinder, 2006 (our least favorite song)

5) Cheeseburger in Paradise, Jimmy Buffett, 1978

6) Dance Hall Days, Wang Chung. 1984 (our favorite song!)

7) Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now), C + C Music Factory, 1990

8) Out of Touch, Hall and Oates, 1984

9) Take the Money and Run, Steve Miller Band, 1976

10) Sugar, Maroon 5. 2015.

http://www.1061fm.com

http://www.margaritaville.com

http://www.hallandoates.com

http://www.visitroanokeva.com

Top Ten Comics from Sunday's The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC, July 19th edition): Dustin Gets a Gold Star

We initially believed that we had misplaced the July 19th Sunday comics section of "The Sun News" in Myrtle Beach, SC, when we found it as it was an archeological stone from ancient Egypt!

Our favorite comic from the newspaper is "Dustin," in which a young adult son walks by his whimsical mom with an overloaded laundry basket.

The second-place strip is "Off the Mark" in which a museum patron is listening to head phones with info on the art who stumbles upon a blank wall with a large hang nail which indicates that a painting, perhaps as prestigious as Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (pict. center). Munch's masterpiece was actually stolen from a museum in his native Norway.

Third place goes to "Ziggy," not to be confused with "Zippy the Pinhead" by Bill Griffith, which today made fun of Mike Huckabee (we're still laughing over that one). Ziggy makes fun of a landmark once featured in a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, that is Niagara Falls, which borders both the United States and Canada. In "Ziggy," the title character is talking to his pooch when he realizes that it is time to use the bathroom!

We have decided to arbitrarily put "Hagar the Horrible" in the tenth position as a running gag.

Here is the top ten:

1) Dustin

2) Off the Mark

3) Ziggy

4) Stone Soup

5) Doonesbury

6) Garfield

7) Dilbert

8) Blondie

9) Curtis

10) Hagar the Horrible

http://www.visitmyrtlebeach.com

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com

http://www.thesunnews.com

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com